


Merlin's Revenge is Arthur's Gain

by Ionaonie



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-23
Updated: 2011-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-27 22:46:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/300864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ionaonie/pseuds/Ionaonie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin tries to get the jump on Arthur. It doesn't work. But then it does</p>
            </blockquote>





	Merlin's Revenge is Arthur's Gain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thisissirius](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisissirius/gifts).



> Written in 2008 as a Christmas gift.

Merlin crouched down behind one of the walls between the courtyard and stables; he was going to get Arthur this year, this time, even if it killed him.

It was winter in Camelot, Merlin’s fourth. Winter in Camelot was very different from winter in Elador. For one thing, Elador was further north than Camelot and so had probably been experiencing snow for at least the last month. The village spent at least two months, if not more, cut off from everyone else unless someone was insane enough to try and walk through the pass that connected the two valleys. Last night had heralded Camelot’s first snowfall. It had started as Merlin had been walking back from putting Arthur to bed after another tedious banquet, so hopefully Arthur would only find out about it when he woke, meaning he would have no time to ambush Merlin.

So far, every year, on the morning of the first snowfall, Arthur had ambushed Merlin early in the morning as he made his way to Arthur’s room. He seemed to indulge in an unhealthy amount of joy and glee from assaulting Merlin with snowballs. It didn’t matter what route Merlin took to get to Arthur’s room, Arthur always seemed to anticipate him and be ready for him. This year Merlin was determined to get Arthur instead.

He knew that Arthur was going to visit his horse that morning, he had stumbled a bit on some ice the day before and Arthur was worried about him. In Merlin’s eyes that was a perfect time for him to ambush Arthur. Merlin had already gone and checked on Bucephalas because if he was really injured Arthur would be furious with him for wasting time.

Checking that he had enough snowballs to give himself a fighting chance of hitting Arthur, he wondered where Arthur was. Surely he should have been down this way already. ‘Unless he’s being a lazy arse, and is still in bed,’ he muttered to himself.

‘Sorry, Merlin,’ said a very familiar voice from behind him, ‘but I’m not in bed.’

Before Merlin could even think of turning around to try and defend himself, his shirt and jacket were pulled away from his neck and a handful of freezing cold snow was shoved down his back. This had not been part of the plan.

‘Nuuuuggghhhhhhh,’ screeched Merlin. ‘You bastard, you utter, utter bastard.’ Merlin jumped away from Arthur before he could shove anymore snow down Merlin’s back. He pulled his shirt out from his trousers, trying to get the snow out but only succeeded in making himself even colder. ‘Cold, cold, this is really, really cold.’ And wet, he couldn’t forget wet.

Arthur, for his part, was nearly doubled over laughing, holding his sides, as Merlin jumped around.

‘I hate you so much,’ he grumbled.

Arthur straightened, still laughing and leant against the wall, an amused expression on his face as he watched Merlin fondly. ‘No you don’t, Merlin. Don’t be silly. You can’t hate me, I’m your Prince.’

‘Yeah,’ gasped Merlin, as the cold made his skin break out in goose bumps, ‘like that has ever worked for you before.’ He completely ignored how inviting Arthur looked leaning against the wall.

‘I know,’ sighed Arthur, as if disappointed. ‘Even after three years you are still a terrible servant.’

Merlin snorted. ‘Like it even bothers you.’

Arthur shrugged. ‘One has to keep up appearances.’

‘Especially when it involves tormenting me,’ muttered Merlin, scowling.

‘Well, it’s certainly a perk,’ agreed Arthur. ‘Now, are you ready to surrender, Merlin, or do I have to make you?’

‘Like you don’t know the answer to that.’ Merlin knew that the reason Arthur always attacked him was because he fought back. He never gave Arthur an easy victory, even when he was woefully outclassed, such as when Arthur was practicing his sword-fighting. Even after three years, Merlin still ended up with numb arms when Arthur got it into his head that Merlin needed to learn how to defend himself. Merlin just didn’t know how to back down.

‘One year, Merlin, you’ll learn that it’s far easier for you if you just admit that I’m better than you at this kind of thing.’

‘That’s never going to happen.’ He frowned, a thought coming to him, although he continued to keep an eye of Arthur. ‘But seriously, how did you know I was here?’

‘You really don’t know?’ Arthur sounded amused.

‘Would I ask if I did?’

‘Look up, Merlin.’

‘Yeah, like I’m going to fall for that one,’ scoffed Merlin. ‘At least try for some originality, sire.’

Arthur rolled his eyes. ‘Fine. Look, here are my hands.’ He held up his hands so Merlin could see they were snowball free. ‘Now, look up,’ he ordered.

Slowly, and with a healthy amount of suspicion, Merlin looked up.

‘Tell me, Merlin, what do you see?’

Merlin, baffled by what Arthur was talking about looked around. All he could see was the castle, and that wasn’t exactly unusual, seeing as it was always there. He glanced back at Arthur. ‘Uh, lots of windows..?’

Arthur nodded at him encouragingly. ‘And any window in particular?’

Merlin groaned as he realised what Arthur was telling him. ‘You saw me out of your bedroom window, didn’t you?’

Arthur shook his head as if in despair. ‘Idiot. Of course I saw you from my window.’

‘Oh.’ That would explain how Arthur had so unerringly snuck up on him.

Arthur pushed himself off the wall. ‘I have to say, you don’t have much of a head for tactics or strategy, do you, Merlin?’

‘Oh, and you do, do you?’ taunted Merlin.

Arthur lifted an eyebrow, quite obviously questioning Merlin’s sanity. And yes, okay, as a general rule, what Arthur didn’t know about strategy or tactics wasn’t worth knowing. But Merlin had a plan, and this was part of it, even if getting snow down his back hadn’t been.

Arthur took a few steps closer to Merlin, his head cocked to one side as if he couldn’t quite believe what he’d heard. ‘Did you just insult my ability to wage war?’

‘Uh, no?’ Although, thinking about it, perhaps he had, and that was never wise. Especially since he’d seen Arthur planning battle strategies and tactics and he had been far more impressed than he thought he probably should have been. It had also been incredibly hot watching Arthur being all commanding, but that was beside the point. ‘Well, maybe, but that wasn’t really what I meant to insult.’

‘Oh, and what did you really mean to insult?’

‘The way you constantly underestimate me, even when you laugh at others who do exactly the same.’

‘I do not underestimate you, Merlin.’ Arthur looked outraged at the suggestion, and if Merlin wasn’t so keenly looking forward to getting Arthur back, he would stop and apologise. Arthur was perhaps the only person – apart from Gaius and his mother – who had even an inkling of what Merlin was capable of.

‘Are you sure?’

‘Of course I’m sure, you twit.’ He looked genuinely annoyed and Merlin swore he’d make it up to Arthur just as soon as his plan had come to fruition.

‘Oh, okay.’ Merlin closed his eyes to hide the gold of his eyes from Arthur. Not because Arthur didn’t know about the magic, he did. He had found out nearly a year ago and it was that discovery that allowed Merlin to do this. He lifted every single snowball he had made, being careful to keep them behind Arthur. It wouldn’t do to have Arthur try to take cover.

He opened his eyes and grinned at Arthur, knowing that his eyes were still slightly golden.

Arthur glanced nervously to his left and right, but didn’t turn around. ‘Merlin, what did you just do?’

‘Nothing, sire.’ But the huge grin on his face was a dead giveaway, he knew. ‘Do you know where you are standing, Arthur?’

Arthur began to turn around and at that moment Merlin let all the snowballs loose. Every single one of them hit Arthur. His brown coat was white within seconds, his hair was plastered to his head and he was spluttering.

Merlin had meant to keep assaulting Arthur with snow until the prince begged for Merlin to stop, but he couldn’t keep his magic going while laughing as hard as he was.

‘That,’ said Arthur slowly, pointing a finger at him, ‘was cheating.’

Merlin, still gasping for breath, nodded. ‘Like I was ever going to get you any other way.’

‘That’s true,’ agreed Arthur smugly, ‘but that was still cheating.’

He wiped his face to rid it of the water dripping into his eyes and shook his hair, making water fly everywhere, and Merlin dissolve into another round of laughter.

Next thing he knew he was pushed up against a wall, Arthur pressed snugly against him and holding his hands above his head. ‘The question is,’ he murmured into Merlin’s ear, ‘how am I going to punish you for such a blatant disregard for the rules?’

Merlin shivered as Arthur’s other hand slipped under his shirt and started drawing little circles on his hip, but he still managed to grin at him. ‘I’m sure you’ll be able to think of something,’ he gasped.

Arthur didn’t answer; instead he brought his lips to Merlin’s and kissed him. As soon as his tongue demanded entrance to Merlin’s mouth, Merlin willingly opened up to him. Arthur let go of his hands, bringing his hand down to cup Merlin’s face, his thumb brushing his cheekbone.

As Arthur kissed his way along Merlin’s jaw, Merlin dropped his hands so they looped Arthur’s shoulders loosely. He moaned as Arthur latched onto his neck, wanting more. So much more. One of his hands dropped even further so he could pull Arthur’s hips closer. They both gasped at the contact. His other hand started carding through Arthur’s hair, pulling him slightly to try and encourage him to return to Merlin’s lips.

Arthur chuckled and the vibrations made Merlin groan and his head hit the wall behind him, or it would have done if Arthur’s hand hadn’t moved from his cheek to the back of his head in time.

‘I think,’ whispered Arthur, ‘we should probably retire to my room, don’t you?’

‘I think that’s a brilliant idea,’ agreed Merlin breathlessly. He wanted to get rid of all the layers of clothes between them, but in this cold that wouldn’t be at all wise. He didn’t want Arthur to catch a cold. He became even more petulant, as impossible as that sounded – and possibly slightly cute, but Merlin would never tell Arthur that, even under pain of death.

Also, Arthur was his, this was all his and he didn’t want anyone interrupting them and seeing Arthur like this. So much of Arthur was on public display all the time, Merlin wanted Arthur to have something that was just for him, that no-one else (other than Merlin, obviously) could see and if anyone walked this way that would all be destroyed.

‘Why do you only think that my ideas are any good when they involve the bedroom?’

Merlin laughed. ‘That’s not true. I think lots of your ideas are good, I just argue less when a bed is involved.’

Arthur kissed him softly. ‘You do? I hadn’t noticed.’

He stepped reluctantly away from Merlin and Merlin immediately missed the warmth from Arthur’s body and he shivered violently.

‘You’re freezing, Merlin,’ exclaimed Arthur. ‘Why didn’t you say anything?’

‘I was alright until ten seconds ago.’ He looked at Arthur from beneath his eyelashes. ‘And I’ll be alright once we get to your room.’

‘Well, the fire should be going by now,’ said Arthur.

Merlin stepped close to Arthur, pressing their bodies together. ‘I wasn’t talking about the fire, Arthur.’

‘Oh. OH!’ Arthur’s cheeks went slightly pink. He grabbed Merlin’s wrist. ‘Then we’d better hurry up. I wouldn’t want you catching a cold in all this snow.’

Merlin laughed as he allowed Arthur to pull him to his room. Suffice to say Arthur endeavoured to make sure he warmed up considerably.


End file.
